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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Zipper Talk

I love zippers. I loved zippers even before they were so "in fashion", but that certainly didn't hurt. I usually buy my zippers via mail order, or I pick them up at Britex or Stone Mountain.

When I made my cream jeans last week, I didn't have a cream jeans zipper, and I was in a rush, so I picked one up at JoAnn's. JoAnn's carries the Coats & Clarks brand, which I haven't used in many years.

Can I just say... ICK!

This zipper felt so cheap. The teeth are sharp and unfinished and the zipper tape is so inflexible and... it feels cheap.

If this is the brand of zipper that you are using, please know that there IS BETTER and your clothing deserves it.

My favorite brands are European, such as YKK or Riri. Riri zippers can be hard to find, though Marcy Tilton usually carries some, but they are often decorative/specialized.

When you just want a good, but regular, zipper, I prefer the YKK brand. In fact, if you look at European RTW brands, such as Deca Paris, they use YKK zippers. I see them used quite often in RTW. This brand is available at your better fabric store (which you should patronize), however, if that is not an option, let me tell you about my favorite online vendor.

ZipperStop is one of those special shops located in the Garment District in New York. I worry about them, as so much of our garment manufacturing is now off-shored, many wonderful shops in the Garment District are closing. It's very sad. I am very happy to give ZipperStop my business and to get the word out.

First of all, their shipping is super fast. I can get a zipper in a couple of days, with no special expediting. They have an amazing selection. They carry decorative zipper stops. And, (this is my favorite thing), they will cut a zipper to a custom length for a measley $1 fee. Do you need a medium-weight separating zipper with antique brass teeth in a 23.75" length?

No problem!

Their prices are very reasonable and I hear they are super nice if you call them on the phone, though I have never needed to. Shams says, check them out!

I have a few more projects in the hopper, but have also done some cleaning this weekend. I may have more things to show early this week, assuming my evening energy holds.

I'm glad that Irene wasn't the monster storm they predicted, although the inconvenience and damage seems bad enough.

21 comments:

Thank you so much for this post - I knew about Zipperstop, although I've never ordered from them, & the "cut to specs" offering is great to know! ITA about the C&C's, & I keep looking for a good excuse to invest in one of the fun, deco Riri's!

You've convinced me to clean out my massive pile of freebie zips. Off to Goodwill goes everything that isn't one of the good brands! (which is most of them). The crappy area of my notions stash thanks you.

Another shout out for Zipperstop. I have an order in-progress that has a color question at the moment, and they emailed yesterday ... IN THE MIDDLE OF HURRICANE PREP ... to let me know they would get back to me early this week. The other half of my order has already been here for days. Love them.

Another shout out for zipperstop. Their shipping to Australia, particularly for small orders, is extremely reasonable - and fast. They also carry lots of zippers that are not available in Australia (otherwise of course, I would be buying them here to help my own local economy).

I wonder if the quality issue is a result of current economics. Isn't C&C still manufactured on this side of the pond? Are costs therefore higher? Would reducing the quality (after all Americans -the US type- are famous for prefering quantity to quality) make it possible for C&C to compete and remain a US company? I could be completely off base here, from start to finish. So please be gentle in your replies. Remember you are educating me.

I have found people to be nothing but kind on my blog, Bev. :) According to the packaging (which I saved to write this post) the Coats & Clark zipper is made in Brazil and packaged in the U.S. So, yes, on this side of the pond, but still outsourced labor.

Good to know that their shipping outside of the US is reasonable, Karen.

Also, good to know about Pacific Trimmings and Riri zippers, Nancy. Unfortunately I haven't been to NYC in years, so I do need a decent website. Though now that I know, I could call them if I'm looking for a specific zipper.

I can get YKK zippers locally, some are even custom dyed, but it's nice to know that there's somewhere else out there to order from if my local store doesn't have what I want when I go in. And yes, C&C zippers suck...nothing quite like fighting the fold lines on an invisible zipper that you can't quite press out.

Wait, do Zipperstop have more than one location? Because I stopped by them when we were in NYC last year and they were in the Lower East Side. Not much retail space to speak of, just a counter in frnt of a massive warehouse, but I did have a ridiculous rifle through their "any 12 for $5" bin. Considering that any ONE zipper costs at least $5 here in the UK, I bought a ridiculous number of zippers while I was in the States. And I'm happy to say not a single one was Coats & Clark. Because I DETEST their cheap and nasty thread, I stay far far away from everything C&C makes!

Shams, great timing on your zipper post. I was just thinking about placing an order today as my zipper supply has dwindled to almost nothing, but could not remember the name of the zipper site. Thanks :)

I use YKK for jeans zips too; and they are wonderful, never had a problem. For dress and invisible zips I use Birch, which I think is an Australian brand, made in China but certainly has an Australian address on the label. Yup, supporting my own economy! The quality is again superb, and never had a problem with them either!

Good to know! I'll have to mark the website for Zipper Stop, as I occasionally need odd lengths. I will confess to using pretty much whatever zipper(s) I can find for the work I do, but a LOT of it is for costuming or special occasion wear which is *very* sturdy (think strapless wedding gowns -- just a little over-construction there!), so I haven't really noticed a difference in quality. But I'll be paying more attention now. :) I've already started to get away from C&C thread for my own projects.

Wow - so much discussion of zippers! Who knew? But then I thought all jeans zippers were awful to sew. Shams, you saved me recently by recommending zipperstop, so I can only echo what everyone else has said. They are the greatest! Thanks for the reminder. Next pair of jeans - zipperstop will be my source.

Thanks for the zipper info; I am trying to upgrade my sewing and investing in better quality zippers seems like a very fine idea. I happened to find YKK zippers available on Amazon; are these the same ones mentioned in your post? The prices seem VERY reasonable!